Washington, D.C. - China, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, India, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine will have projects funded under the auspices of the Methane to Markets Partnership, an international effort promoting near-term, cost-effective projects that capture and use methane as a clean-energy source.

EPA is announcing the award of $2 million for projects that will enhance the capture and use of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas twenty times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. The primary component of natural gas, methane is also a valuable and clean-burning energy resource.

"An investment in methane capture and use projects is an investment in a more environmentally sustainable future," said Bob Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air & Radiation. "By financing international projects through the Methane to Markets Partnership, the U.S. government and its global partners are cutting greenhouse gases while promoting economic development and energy security."

Projects funded by these grants will support a variety of partnership activities designed to remove technical or informational barriers to successful methane capture and use projects. These activities include, among others: training, development of databases on potential project sites, feasibility studies, technology transfer, and project expositions.

Recipients of assistance agreements:

Argentina: Argentina Solid Waste Association, $125,000 to identify a site and design and construct a demonstration project of small scale direct utilization of landfill gas to fulfill on-site energy needs.

Brazil: (1) ICLEI--Local Governments for Sustainability, $140,000 for a local methane partnership for emissions reduction at municipal landfills in 3-5 participant cities to be identified; and (2) University of Louisiana at Lafayette, $225,000 for development of a Process Optimization Review document that will outline methods with potential to reduce methane emissions by optimizing processes at an oil and gas production facility operated by Devon Energy in Brazil.

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China: (1) China Coal Information Institute, $100,000 for demonstration project of power generation using low quality coal methane at a coal mine in the Anhui or Henan coal mining areas; (2) Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, $200,102 for a feasibility study on mitigating and utilizing diluted mine methane by using a monolithic catalytic combustor at Tiefa; and (3) Guizhou International Cooperation Center for Environment, $63,503 for a coal mine methane recovery and use initiative at mines in Guizhou province.

India: (1) Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, $150,016 to coordinate activities for advancing Indian methane recovery and use projects in the Agriculture and Landfill sectors by engaging multiple stakeholders in dialogue and activities; (2) International Institute for Energy Conservation, $99,000 for initiating a nationwide system similar to EPA's "AgSTAR" program for recovering methane from manure at animal feeding operations; (3) Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, $77,000 for the quantification of ventilation air methane emissions from three underground coal mines in India: the Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand, the Raniganj coalfield in West Bengal, and the Margeretta coalfield in Assam; and (4) Texas A&M University System Health Science Center Research Foundation, $100,000 for a pre-feasibility study for converting landfill gas to fuel for refuse trucks and buses in the state of Maharashtra.

Korea: Korea District Heating Corp., $80,000 for feasibility studies of methane recovery from the Chuncheon, Gangneung, Jinju, and Mokpo landfills. Mexico: Border Environment Cooperation Commission, $190,000 for landfill gas recovery project feasibility studies in the city of Satillo, Coahuila and the city of Hermosillo, Samora.

Nigeria: (1) Center for People and the Environment, $80,000 for a pre-feasibility study of electricity generation from coal mine methane at a site to be determined; and (2) International Solid Waste Association, $35,000 for a Nigerian landfill inventory.

Ukraine: Renewable Energy Agency, $175,000 to develop a successful landfill gas infrared heater project at a site to be identified.

The Methane to Markets Partnership, launched by President Bush in November 2004, brings twenty partner countries together with more than 600 Project Network members from the private and public sectors to harness this important energy resource and protect the global climate. The partnership supports project opportunities in sectors where collection and utilization of methane is possible using currently available technologies – for example, landfills, agriculture (livestock waste management), oil and gas, and coal mining.